The bottle opener industry has long been seeking to solve the problems associated with the removal of bottle caps from the bottles, while at the same time capturing, collecting, storing and disposing of the bottle caps in an efficient and economical manner. During the process of opening bottles prior to disposing of the bottle caps, the bottle caps randomly fall on the counter or the floor awaiting independent retrieval for disposal.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,116,306 issued in 1938 for a bottle opener that also functioned to capture and store the removed caps. That device utilized a pivotally mounted decapper that extended outwardly from an enclosure to remove a cap from a bottle and then was pulled inwardly by spring tension to release the cap into a storage volume. The removed cap was held against the decapper by a magnet until the decapper struck a stop that limited its pivoting motion. Such devices are complex, unreliable and expensive to manufacture, and they are not portable.
A much simpler device is described in the 1952 U.S. Pat. No. 2,588,687 wherein a bottle opener with a cap receiver is affixed to a vertical wall such that the removed cap falls by gravity into a receptacle. While simple and reliable, this device is not portable.
A portable cap removing and collecting device is described in the 1955 U.S. Pat. No. 2,728,250. That device utilizes a permanent magnet in conjunction with a sliding lifting hook device which slides beyond a receptacle mouth when the device is upended to remove a cap from a bottle, and then slides back into the receptacle via gravity when the device is uprighted with the removed cap remaining affixed to the hook device by magnetic attraction. A pivotally mounted, retractable, weighted stop member is provided at the mouth of the receptacle to keep the inventory of removed caps from escaping the receptacle when the device is again upended to remove the next cap. The stop device fully closes the mouth to retain the removed caps when upended and fully opens the mouth when uprighted to allow free passage of the removed caps into the receptacle without any obstruction that might otherwise dislodge the cap from the magnet. Here, again, such devices are complex, unreliable and expensive to manufacture.
Finally, in 1986, a relatively simple portable cap collecting opener is described for twist-off caps in U.S. Pat. No. 4,615,242. That device includes a cylindrical member at one end for grabbing and retaining twist-off caps. Optionally, at an opposed end, the device is provided with an opener for removing pry-off bottle caps. Unfortunately, the device functions to capture only the twist-off caps, but it provides no means for retaining the removed pry-off caps.
Thus, further improvements are needed to satisfy the long-standing need for a simple and portable device capable of removing and collecting all types of bottle caps, including pry-off caps.